Denver Nuggets / NBA

Nuggets give up early lead, lose to Boston Celtics

Boston 106, Denver 98

BOSTON — The Nuggets trip to Philadelphia began about 24 hours before it was supposed to, apparently, because they were nowhere to be found Friday night in TD Garden.

The Celtics ran the Nuggets out of the gym from the opening tip to the final buzzer. Though the final score looked respectable — 106-98 — there was injury added to insult when Nuggets point guard Ty Lawson was lost in the second half to a hamstring injury.

It was a Nuggets performance that in many ways was more lackluster than their loss at Cleveland two nights earlier, and that game was the second of a back-to-back. This one was the first of a back-to-back, which ends Saturday in Philadelphia.

Denver Nuggets' Ty Lawson, center, drives for the basket as Boston Celtics' Brandon Bass (30) defends in the second quarter of an NBA basketball game on Dec. 6 in Boston. (Michael Dwyer, AP)

The game against the 76ers can't come soon enough for a Nuggets team eager to erase the taste of this one. It'll take some scrubbing.

"Second consecutive game that we got beat up, got hit first," Nuggets coach Brian Shaw said. "And we can't continue to put ourselves at a deficit, spot a team a (27-point) lead in the first half and expect to win the game. It just takes too much energy to expend to try to get back into it."

Denver (11-8) now is 2-2 on this six-game road trip.

"It happens," Nuggets guard Randy Foye said. "We started off (the season) slow, we got hot. We lost two in a row and now it's time to get hot again. The main thing is to stay together and keep a positive attitude. Because we're good enough to beat anybody."

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The salt in the wound Friday was the Nuggets' shooting, most notably in the first half, when they shot 35.7 percent and trailed 64-44 at the break. Layups rimmed out and jump shots clanged off the rim. The frustrating part that could have been controlled was the Nuggets' defensive effort. There just wasn't much at the outset.

Boston, however, provided the defensive blueprint by sticking with its man through screens, closing off the lane to dribble penetration and contesting nearly every shot. That defense, and hot shooting, helped the Celtics (9-12) to a 14-0 lead before the fans could fully settle into their seats.

The Celtics pushed the lead to near 30 points in the first half before the Nuggets figured some things out on the offensive end. But by then big-time damage had already been done. Their 39 first quarter points (in a 39-15 lead) tied for the most points Boston had scored in any quarter this season.

Yet things changed for a quarter.

The Nuggets found their aggressiveness and defensive intensity in the third. And with it, they began slicing the Celtics' lead down to size. They had it down to three, at 73-70, before the Celtics closed the third on a 14-7 run to push it back up to 10.

Ultimately, though, the Nuggets could never get the lead. They trailed the entire game and lost.

"One of the things I asked our team was: 'If you're not scoring for us on the offensive end, how are you helping our team win?' It means you have to defend, you have to rebound, you have to make hustle plays — and we weren't doing any of that," Shaw said.

The Nuggets were led with Lawson's 20 points. . He added four assists and four rebounds. His availability for the Sixers game is unknown. J.J. Hickson added 17 points and seven rebounds.

Nuggets Recap

What you might have missed

Celtics starters outscored Nuggets starters 51-26 in the first half. ... The Nuggets allowed Boston reserve forward Kris Humphries to score 18 points, a season-high for him and roughly 14 points above his season average. ... The Nuggets did knock down 82 percent of their free throws (24-of-29 on the night).

Final thought

U-G-L-Y.

DENVER AT PHILADELPHIA5 p.m. Saturday, ALT; 950 AM

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